Determined investigators crack the case of what killed Werner Vogt

Investigators took saliva DNA samples from numerous dogs in the area of Northwoods Road southeast of Rogersville to try to identify the dogs that killed Werner Vogt in December 2015.(Photo: File photo)

From his Springfield hospital bed, Werner Vogt looked closely at the pictures, clear of mind despite savage wounds on his arms, legs and body from some sort of animal attack.

It was Corporal David Bernier's second visit to interview Vogt, and this time the Christian County sheriff's investigator slowly held up photos of possible culprits — various breeds of dogs, a black bear, coyote, mountain lion, bobcat.

With certainty, Vogt pointed to one photograph.

"He was very clear about it, when he pointed to the coyote, and said that's what attacked him," Bernier recalled. "It was kind of shocking to me. I showed him the photos several times, but he described it very clearly to us. He pointed out the coyote."

Werner Vogt, 85, died shortly after that interview from wounds he suffered in the Nov. 12, 2015, animal attack on Northwoods Road near his rural home southeast of Rogersville. The incident shocked neighbors living in the upscale Anchor Hill subdivision and left many worried at the time that whatever killed the elderly bicyclist might still be out there.

There were no witnesses to the attack, and Sheriff Brad Cole expressed concerns early on that, based on Vogt's extreme injuries, something other than dogs might have killed Vogt. When the elderly bicyclist identified a coyote as his attacker, investigators scrambled for clues.

In mid-February, the News-Leader filed a Sunshine Law request seeking the sheriff's investigative report. The narrative in the 17-page document reveals a relentless pursuit of the facts by Bernier and Sgt. Michael Elliott. At times, according to the report, credible tips led the investigators to consider wild animals.

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Christian County Sheriff Brad Cole talks to a News-Leader reporter in his office in Ozark, Mo. on March 1, 2017.(Photo: Guillermo Hernandez Martinez/News-Leader)

Their determined work, which included getting DNA saliva samples from numerous dogs in the area and finding a forensic laboratory that would test them, eventually cracked the case.

According to the report, it wasn't coyotes that killed Werner Vogt.

It was a neighbor's boxer dogs. And two of those dogs are now living with new owners in Halfway and a rural subdivision west of Springfield.

More than a year after Vogt died on Dec. 4, 2015, the investigation into his death remains open. In an interview in his office on March 1, Cole said he thought a decision on whether any charges might result from the incident could come soon, possibly within 30 days.

He added that his investigators "spent a lot of hours" pursuing and collecting evidence that led them to the boxer dogs as the likely animals that killed Werner Vogt.

The attack

Northwoods Road is an area of distantly spaced upscale homes surrounded by forest and steep hills. Vogt was riding his bike on Northwoods Road when he was attacked in broad daylight. Five days after the attack, Bernier (now with the Sparta Police Department) was able to interview Vogt at the hospital and ask him what he recalled.

Vogt described a vicious attack, where he was bitten, clawed and dragged by two animals he thought could be dogs. According to the report, Vogt became unconscious during the attack and woke up later at the hospital's intensive care unit.

Moments after the attack, a family member discovered the severely injured Vogt and rushed him to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, before investigators arrived at the scene on Northwoods Road.

Bernier said he found a pool of blood near Vogt's bike and shredded and bitten pieces of Vogt's clothing. Bernier said it was initially unclear what had happened, whether Vogt might have been hit by a car or assaulted by someone.

He found Vogt's jacket and noticed white, frothy saliva on it. His next act helped ensure the case would eventually be solved.

Werner Vogt's jacket yielded animal saliva that eventually led investigators to identify the dogs that killed the elderly bicyclist.(Photo: Christian County Sheriff's Office)

"I preserved the clothing from Mr. Vogt as evidence that first day," Bernier said in a phone interview with the News-Leader. "The saliva had dried on his clothing."

According to the investigative reports, Bernier learned the day of the attack that some of Vogt's family members and neighbors had contacted the sheriff's office to report that a nearby neighbor owned several large dogs, which they said had been aggressive in the past and might have been involved in attacking the bicyclist.

Photo shows the torn-apart gloves investigators found at the scene where Werner Vogt was attacked by dogs in December 2015.(Photo: Christian County Sheriff's Office)

Bernier went to the home, on the same road and about an eighth of a mile from where the attack occurred, and met dog owner Joseph Brink. According to Bernier's report, Brink allowed the sheriff's officer to physically examine the four large boxer dogs he owned with his wife, Lindsay.

From the report:

"He told me the three dogs I had seen fenced in (at Brink's home) were running loose about the time of the incident and he could not account for their whereabouts," Bernier wrote in his report. There is no indication in the report why the dogs were not in their fenced enclosure.

Bernier examined each dog.

"They sat without issue while I opened and inspected each mouth and did not attempt to bite me or become aggressive," Bernier wrote. "I found no signs of blood or human flesh in the mouth of any animal and no signs of fighting or blood on the coats, paws or pads of any of the animals."

None of the animals appeared to have been recently washed or groomed, Bernier noted, adding, "I found no indication that the owner was attempting to hide any possible evidence of their involvement."

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Investigators used DNA evidence to link boxer dogs that lived at this property on Northwoods Road southeast of Rogersville to the death of an elderly bicyclist in 2015.(Photo: Guillermo Hernandez Martinez/News-Leader)

However, Brink did say he had seen a large bear on his property and had photos of the bear from a game camera.

The case took an unusual turn later that day when another resident who lives in the Anchor Hill area told Bernier of a strange incident that had happened in their backyard.

"She told me a family member of hers had killed a deer the previous Sunday and hung it from a chain on the back deck of the home," Bernier wrote in his report. "She told me when they went to retrieve the deer on Monday morning the animal was gone."

The deer carcass was found a short distance from the house.

"She told me the deer was torn apart and had large scratch marks on it from an unknown animal," Bernier wrote. "She told me she had seen a bear and a possible mountain lion in the area in the past and only wanted our agency to be aware."

Bernier said the sheriff's office began getting a large number of calls from area citizens, voicing their fears that whatever creature attacked Vogt had not yet been caught. They were worried another attack might happen, he said.

Bears or mountain lion or something else?

More tips came in.

Sgt. Michael Elliott with the Christian County Sheriff's Office took several of them, which he documented in the investigation report.

One resident told Elliott about two free-roaming Great Pyrenees dogs that reportedly had attacked and bitten her daughter and another girl while they were riding their bikes.

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Through a Sunshine Law request, the News-Leader received investigation reports about a dog attack that killed an elderly man near Rogersville in 2015.(Photo: Nathan Papes/News-Leader)

Another resident who lives very close to where Vogt was attacked on his bicycle told Elliott that he had photographed at least three bears — likely a female with two smaller cubs — repeatedly on his game cameras.

Elliott tracked down the Great Pyrenees dogs and took DNA saliva samples from each. He also learned the Vogt family had a female dog that was a mix of boxer, mastiff and pit bull. Elliott took DNA saliva samples from that dog and added them to the others he and Bernier had collected.

In May 2016, Elliott followed up on Bernier's initial report and met Joseph Brink at his home on Northwoods Road and asked permission to take DNA saliva samples from the four boxers. During that meeting, Elliott learned that two of Brink's boxers were no longer there.

"Joseph told me at the time this occurred he owned four boxers, Chubs, Otto, Hugo & Bruno," Elliott wrote in his report. "Joseph said the dogs that were running loose at the time of the attack were Chubs, Otto and Hugo. Joseph said since the attack, concerned that his dogs could have been responsible, he got rid of Chubs and Otto. It seemed to me that Joseph believed his dogs were likely responsible, and told me he just couldn't allow himself to keep the dogs, especially since he has a little boy."

DNA swabs, and a match

Elliott took DNA swabs from the two remaining boxers — Hugo and Bruno — and began tracking down the locations of the two dogs Brink said he had disposed of, Otto and Chubbs. According to the report, Brink said his brother took Otto to a humane society at Bolivar, while Chubbs was given to a Springfield family who responded to their Craigslist ad.

Elliott eventually located both dogs and contacted the new owners, who told the News-Leader they were shocked to learn of the boxers' possible link to the fatal attack on Vogt. With the new owners' permission, Elliott got DNA saliva samples from Chubbs and Otto to make sure they were the same dogs Brink had disposed of.

Initial DNA analysis of the saliva found on Vogt's clothing revealed that the source was "domestic dogs, likely more than one," according to the sheriff's report. That information was conveyed to Werner Vogt's adult son, Vernon Vogt.

In June 2016, the DNA samples from the boxers, along with samples from numerous others dogs in the vicinity of the attack, were shipped to Ginger Clark, forensic DNA analyst with the Veterinary Forensic Program at the University of Florida.

Clark compared those samples with saliva found on Vogt's clothing and found a "perfect match" for one of the boxers — Otto. Based on DNA results, Brink's three other boxers — Hugo, Chubbs and Bruno — could not be ruled out as being involved, Clark told the sheriff.

Werner Vogt, 85, died from injuries suffered in a dog attack while riding his bike on this stretch of Northwoods Road in the Anchor Hilll Ranch subdivision southeast of Rogersville.(Photo: File photo)

In an interview with the News-Leader on March 3, Clark said none of the DNA samples from other dogs that investigators had sampled matched the saliva found on Vogt's clothing.

"One dog (Otto) had a full-profile match, while the other three were pretty close to a full profile match," Clark said.

The kind of DNA test she ran also would have revealed if a coyote, wolf or fox had been involved. Clark said she was able to rule those out.

It's important to note that the DNA tests weren't designed to identify a specific breed of dog, she added, only whether the submitted saliva samples matched saliva found on Vogt's clothing.

They did, she said.

And the culprits, according to the investigation records, were not coyotes, but Joseph and Lindsay Brink's boxers.

The couple did not respond to News-Leader efforts to reach them for a comment.

In an email to the News-Leader, Werner Vogt's son, Vernon, declined "at this time" to comment about the still-open investigation.